origin

how it all begins

ARS ELECTRONICA 2011

Symmetries

01.09.2011 Do/Thu - 06.09.2011 Di/Tue, Brucknerhaus

Symmetries is—in addition to ORIGIN – Doing Research on the Big Bang,a presentation of the work being done at CERN—the second exhibition having to do with this year’s festival theme. A heterogeneous array of experimental assemblies, images and exhibits invites visitors to confront highly diverse manifestations of the human spirit of inquiry and the joy of discovery.

Astronomical Bodies, Michael Burton (UK), credit: Theo Cook

When life began, all the chemical elements necessary for this to happen were already present on Earth (with the exception of phosphorous, which was presumably delivered later via meteorite). Astronomical Bodies by Michael Burton (UK) considers reversing this development—phosphorous derived from human liver and kidney stones is to be launched into space as a means of nurturing the evolution of life on other planets.

Sound artist Kalle Laar (DE) will treat festivalgoers to an elementary auditory experience. Come with me is an up-close-and-personal acoustic encounter with fire.

Carsten Nicolai’s (DE) modell zur visualisierung achieves the visual depiction of a precisely processed soundtrack that makes the effects of magnetic fields on a beam of electrons audible.

To find out whether or not a scientific experiment can also be a work of art, artists/scientists Adam Brown (US) and Bob Root-Bernstein (US) conducted the Origins of Life: Experiment 1.6. It explores imaginary worlds of gas under glass.

How will we live, think, believe and act in 40 years? overtures ZeitRäume by Serafine Lindemann (DE) und Christian Schoen (DE) suggests answers in the form of speculative scenarios put forth by artists in public and
private urban settings.

In a physical action highly charged with metaphor, artists Thomas Huber (DE) and Wolfgang Aichner (DE) used only their own hands to drag their self-constructed boat over the Alps to Venice. The logfiles of passage2011
presented here — reminiscent of Werner Herzog’s classic film Fitzcarraldo — tell a tale of human striving to surpass ones limits.

For years now, Linz native Norbert Artner (AT), a visual artist and designer, has been systematically visiting artists’ ateliers and thus places at which new things come into being. Symmetries will feature several photographic works from his series entitled Studios.

What, exactly, does quantum physics actually deal with, and just how do its practitioners arrive at their astounding insights? Quantum physicists from the University of Vienna (AT) will answer these questions with
demonstration experiments staged in conjunction with Symmetries.